7.2 quake to affect 90% of Cavite

Ninety-percent of Cavite will be affected in case a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hits the province.

“I don’t want my statement to be too alarming, but 90 percent of the province will be largely affected if 7.2 magnitude of [an]earthquake hits Cavite,” Ronnie Trinidad, the head of Operations of the Provincial Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council for Cavite, told The Manila Times.

Trinidad has been working in disaster and rescue management since 2007 and has under him 160 people who are well-trained in rescue operations. There are also hundred of rescue volunteers in Cavite.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recently released the Valley Fault System Atlas, which are large-scale maps showing areas that are near an earthquake fault. It identified the West Valley Fault that could possibly generate a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, while the East Valley Fault could generate a magnitude 6.2 earthquake.

The West Valley Fault can directly affect the following localities in Cavite: Carmona; General Mariano Alvares; and Silang. Meanwhile, the following will not be directly affected by that fault line: Ternate; Maragondon; and Magallanes.

Trinidad said Cavite has 3.8 million people and a powerful “earthquake can hit at anytime, it will be disastrous if powerful earthquake hits the province,” in terms of damages in infrastructure and buildings. He did not discount human casualties.

There have been two strong earthquakes in the Philippines since 1976. On August 16, 1976, the Moro Gulf Earthquake hit the southern part of Mindanao and killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people. It had magnitude of 8.0.

And on July 16,1990, the Luzon Earthquake with magnitude of 7.9 hit parts of Northern Luzon which resulted to 1,621 deaths. Cabanatuan City and Baguio City incurred the highest numbers of casualties.

3 Comments

Sir,
If this is the assesments or findings of authorities of Cavite that if 7.2 strong earthquake hit Cavite 90% will be affected. The question now for the writer is to ask the cavite governor what steps is he doing to secure and protect those residences in west valley faults located in the upland of Cavite?
Are they safe to live there for how long? there was no statement from the provincial office what they were doing so that there will be non scared and continue their livelihood.

Cavite officials should act now before the real strong earthquake hit their province.

Sa totoo Lang, if supposedly 7.2 or 7.9 earthquake happen what can we do. Minor preparation yes we can do but in reality we don’t know what to do even kung matibay ang pagtayo ng iyong Bahay eh kung nasa Ibang gusali ka naman yun Ora’s ng earthquake wala ka rin magagawa.so the government should really enforced an vhonesty to goodness check of all building and demolished those that is earthquake hazard building and houses. Pero ako ay nagtataka Kasi why so sudden the government is too focus on earthquake bec. The philvoc say west fault line has a history of shaking every 400 to 600 years eh the last earthquake on west fault line is just 357 years only maybe I’m dead after 43 years. Sa tingin ko eh nilalayo at nililinlang ang isipan ng mamayan na ayaw sa pagpasa ng BBL law . Para wala makontra sa gusto ng administration . This passage for me kung Hindi nabura ang ibang provision eh worst than earthquake Kasi masmalaki ang sakuna at ts aka Ito ay man made problem. Nakupo…….

Metro Manila is subjected to a serious seismic shake every 25 years on average. Either from the Philippine Master Fault, Verde Island Passage Fault or the Manila Trench. There seems to be an over-emphasis on the WVFS as if it was the only one to worry about.